Tag Archives: 3d printing

Control robots in an underwater obstacle course! Design a Rube Goldberg Machine! Build and destroy bridges! The students of Peter Schoedel’s Schurz pre-engineering program have so many wonderful projects to share with you all at the CNS Mini Maker Faire!

Peter Schoedel has been leading the pre-engineering program at Schurz High School for four years. In the four year program, students learn engineering and design skills. The CNS Mini Maker Faire provides them an excellent opportunity to take what they have learned and share it with participants. Peter Schoedel explains, “It is really important for students to be able present technology ideas in front of people. It’s 21st century skill building. They have to be able to verbally communicate their ideas, and collaborate with fellow students.”

This year at the faire, students will present five different projects and will teach people new skills. The students from SeaPerch Underwater ROV club will showcase the ROVs that they built in the pool. This after school club recently went to a US Navy Competition at the Great Lakes Naval Station to compete in obstacle course and other challenges and took 5th, 7th and 9th place out of 32 teams. That’s awesome. Participants in the faire can try their hand at controlling a ROV underwater in the obstacle course. Another group will demonstrate 3D Modeling with Inventor. Students have been learning how to draw using Inventor, a 3D Cad program so they will be showing us how to draw 3D on computers. Then the design can be hooked up to a 3D printer to be built. How cool is that! Folks can check out a 3D printer in action, using their own designs.

One group of sophomores and juniors will be leading “Make and Destroy Bridge Challenge.” In class, they’ve been building bridges out of balsa wood, testing them, and learning how to build strong and better bridges. Now, they want to share those skills with participants. People at the faire will get the chance to build bridges out of popsicle sticks and then test them out and see if they’ll hold heavy objects! Another project is “Rube Goldberg and the Simple Machines of Life” where folks will have the opportunity to play with various simple machines to build a Rube Goldberg machine. The final project is “Godzilla Games” where folks will have the opportunity to put together a giant 3D puzzle or play with huge Jenga blocks.

Come out to the Faire and check out all five projects to see the amazing things that the pre-engineering students have learned!

Welcome to the Fifth Anniversary Chicago Northside Mini Maker Faire, presented by Schurz High School , the Urban School Foundation, and Christina Pei! For those of you who are new to Maker Faire, it is the largest celebration of DIY (Do-It-Yourself) in the world. Maker Faire is a venue for inventors, technophiles, artists, crafters, mad scientists, hackers, musicians, and anyone who makes cool things and want to show others how it’s done. Our Faire is the most diverse in the world, and we invite you to participate in teaching and learning for all ages and interests! If you have an awesome project to showcase, share it here:

Reserve your maker table at Schurz High School on Saturday, May 7, 2016. We will be accepting applications until April 1. There is no cost to makers to present and it’s FREE for your friends to attend! Makers will also be featured on our website and advertisements.

Schurz High School , the Urban School Foundation, and local maker Christina Pei return with the third annual Chicago Northside Mini Maker Faire, celebrating teaching and learning for all ages of makers, new and old! For those of you who are new to Maker Faire, it is the largest celebration of DIY (Do-It-Yourself) in the world. Maker Faire is a venue for inventors, technophiles, artists, crafters, mad scientists, hackers, musicians, and anyone who makes cool things and want to show others how it’s done. If this describes you:

Reserve your maker table at Schurz High School on Saturday, May 2, 2015. We will be accepting applications until April 6. There is no cost to makers to present and it’s FREE for your friends to attend! Makers will also be featured on our website and advertisements.

This week, Mini Maker Faire Chicago Northside took a field trip to South Side Hackerspace (SSH) at their headquarter in Bridgeport. For those unfamiliar with the concept, a hackerspace is a collective space where people interested in computers, electronics, and more can experiment and learn with other like-minded individuals. The hackerspace may also have equipment like saws, 3D printers, drills, and soldering guns, available for people to use on their projects. Classes are also held at SSH to teach various skills, like soldering.

South Side Hackerspace is a pretty happening place. Members join at various levels and have access to the space and its tools (with appropriate training and approval of board members). There is not one but two 3D printers in addition to lots of other machine tools for your projects. It’s an open learning environment. Right now, there is a weekly Machine learning meet up. But it’s not all about work; it’s a social space too. They just had their 2 year anniversary party!

One of the big focuses of SSH is education, especially for the youth. They want to provide a safe place for younger people to learn about science and technology. They’ve done several workshops partnering with Chicago Public Library (CPL). Right now, you have to be 18+ to become a member of the space (with possible options for 16-18) but they want to continue outreach as a resource for younger people in Chicago. They are currently in the midst of an Indiegogo campaign to help raise funds to make their space even cooler.

South Side Hackerspace is very excited to be coming out to Mini-Maker Faire for the third year! They can’t wait to meet people and share with them about SSH. They are going to show off one of their 3D printers. They’ll explain how it works and print out prototypes. So be sure to check them out and learn more!